#dnd5.5e

D&D character turnaround of my special boy. See him on Artfight (see pinned post) this year! The final spread isn't perfect, but I'm pretty proud of the scaling and detail work :^) God, though. Back facing feet. What the hell.

See progress photos under the break ->

Every world has a story, but on Athas, it's a tale of a paradise lost. Step with us into the searing heat and dusty winds as we uncover the in-lore history of how this once-verdant planet became the brutal wasteland you know today, ruled by immortal tyrants and haunted by a forgotten past. 🌍🥀

The Blue Age: An Eden Lost 💧

Long, long ago, Athas was a vibrant world known as the Blue Age, dominated by a single, life-giving ocean under a blue sun. Halflings ruled the world during this time as nature-masters and life-shapers, using their unparalleled power to manipulate nature itself to create and sustain life. However, an experiment to increase the ocean's bounty went horribly wrong. It choked the sea with a toxic brown tide, killing everything it touched and bringing an end to this idyllic age.

The Green Age: Birth of New Life 🌿✨

Desperate, the halflings built a magical talisman, the Pristine Tower, to harness the sun's energies. The Tower's light burned away the brown tide and transformed the planet, turning the sun from blue to yellow and revealing a new, verdant world. The halflings' civilization ended, and they spiraled into savagery. In their place, new races—including humans, demihumans, and other humanoids—were born, gifted with myriad psionic powers by the energy of the Pristine Tower. The new peoples thrived and built great cities under the yellow sun.

The Time of Magic & The Cleansing Wars 🔮⚔️

The Green Age's peace was shattered when a powerful pyreen named Rajaat discovered arcane magic. He taught the world preserving magic, which was harmless, but secretly mastered a darker art: defiling. Defiling magic consumed the life force of the land itself, leaving it barren. Using the power of the Pristine Tower, Rajaat secretly chose 15 students, transforming them into his immortal, psionic Champions. The process turned the sun a searing red, and Rajaat commanded his Champions to exterminate every race on Athas except the halflings. This brutal conflict, known as the Cleansing Wars, unleashed a torrent of defiling magic that desolated the land, turning it into the savage desert we know today.

The Age of the Sorcerer-Kings 👑⛓️

The Champions eventually learned that Rajaat's plans did not include their survival. They rebelled, led by Borys of Ebe, and used a magical artifact to imprison their creator in a shadow realm. With Rajaat contained, the surviving Champions renamed themselves the Sorcerer-Kings and seized control of the last remaining city-states. To ensure Rajaat's prison held, Borys was transformed into a true dragon—a creature nearly unheard of in the setting. In his madness, he went on a century-long defiling rampage, which was the final cataclysm that cemented Athas as a hellish desert. To this day, the Sorcerer-Kings rule as tyrants, feeding on the magical energy of their subjects and hoarding the precious, dwindling resources.

A Dying World & The Seeds of Hope 💀🌱

Today, Athas is a brutal crucible of survival. Water is more valuable than gold, metal is almost non-existent, and slavery is commonplace. But even in this dire state, hope endures. Preservers still practice non-destructive magic in secret, hunted by templars but clinging to the hope of a world not defined by decay. Likewise, Druids and Elemental Clerics draw their power from the last remaining shards of Athas's primal forces, actively fighting to heal the land and protect what little life remains.

Wanderers of the wastes, welcome back! With the continued buzz around a potential new Dark Sun release, we can't resist diving back into the crimson deserts of Athas to bring you more classic content. This time, we're focusing on the very heart of the city-states: the gladiators! We’ll convert one of the setting's most iconic player races and a subclass that captures the brutal life of the arena.

Player Race: The Mul 🏋️‍♂️

The Mul are a tragic and powerful race, an iconic part of the Dark Sun setting. They are sterile hybrids, the result of a union between humans and dwarves, and are engineered in slave pens for a single purpose: to be the perfect gladiator or a tireless laborer. They possess the physical strength and size of a human and the incredible endurance of a dwarf. A Mul is easily recognized by their hairless body, muscular frame, and pointed ears. They are a somber, solitary people, often with a deep-seated resentment for the masters who created them.

Mul

Medium humanoid

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age. Muls mature faster than humans, reaching adulthood by age 12. They have a lifespan of around 50 years.

Alignment. Muls tend toward a neutral or chaotic alignment. Their upbringing as slaves leaves them wary of authority and often fosters a desire for freedom.

Size. Muls are powerfully built, standing taller than humans and weighing more. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Unflagging Endurance. When you make a Constitution saving throw, you can choose to have advantage on the roll. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

Stout Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common.

Fighter Subclass: The Gladiator 🏟️

In the city-states of Athas, the arena is life. Gladiators are not just warriors; they are a form of entertainment, a means of social control, and for a very few, a path to freedom. A Gladiator Fighter hones their skills in the pit, learning to fight not just with strength, but with showmanship and cunning.

Gladiator

Fighter Subclass

Arena Training

3rd-level Gladiator feature You gain proficiency with two of the following skills of your choice: Athletics, Performance, or Intimidation. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can use your bonus action to gain temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus.

Crowd Favorite

7th-level Gladiator feature You are a master of putting on a show. Once per turn, when you score a critical hit on a creature or reduce it to 0 hit points, you can choose to either:

Make one additional attack against a different creature within your reach.

Regain one use of your Second Wind feature.

Bloody Cunning

10th-level Gladiator feature Your time in the arena has taught you how to read your opponents. You can add your proficiency bonus to the damage roll of any melee weapon attack you make. This damage increases by 1 at 15th level (+4), and again at 20th level (+5).

Champion of the Arena

15th-level Gladiator feature You have mastered the art of survival and spectacle. Once per long rest, when you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can choose to immediately drop to 1 hit point instead. Additionally, you regain all expended uses of your Second Wind feature.

Wanderers of the wastes, welcome! With the recent Unearthed Arcana showing off some obviously Dark Sun-themed sub-classes, the rumors are flying that a return to Athas is imminent. We're celebrating the possibility! Step out of the verdant forests and away from the shining castles you know. This isn't your typical fantasy world. This is Athas, a dying planet under a blistering crimson sun. 🏜️

Imagine a world where water is more precious than gold, and every shadow holds a new danger. It's a land of endless, choking dust and sand, where mighty cities are rare bastions of civilization ruled by ruthless, immortal sorcerer-kings. Metal is almost non-existent, so warriors fight with obsidian and bone. Magic, as you know it, is a corrupting force; every powerful spell cast rips the life from the very earth, leaving behind a sterile wasteland. This is the difference between a careful Preserver and a destructive Defiler. 🔮

But there is another power here: the power of the mind. Psionics are a common, almost everyday part of life, and mastering them is key to survival. Welcome to a world of survival, struggle, and fierce independence. We're diving deep into this brutal setting to bring you some classic monsters, a glimpse into the world's themes, and a peek into one of its most iconic city-states, all converted for your 5.5e games. 🔥

The Monsters of Athas: The T'l'k'n & The Belgoi

The T'l'k'n 🐞

What better monster to start with than the T'l'k'n? These monstrous beetles are a staple of the Athasian wilderness, feared for their ferocity and their truly horrifying way of creating nests. 😱 A T'l'k'n is a colossal, six-legged beetle with a rust-red carapace and a massive, hooked stinger that it uses to grapple and restrain its prey. It primarily hunts large desert creatures, burrowing just beneath the dunes and using its keen tremorsense to ambush its victims. However, what truly makes the T'l'k'n a horror is its reproductive cycle. The T'l'k'n lays its eggs in the living bodies of its victims, which later hatch into a swarm of ravenous, carnivorous larvae that consume the host from the inside out.

T'l'k'n

Large monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)

Hit Points 95 (10d10 + 40)

Speed 30 ft., burrow 20 ft.

STR 19 (+4) DEX 10 (+0) CON 18 (+4)

INT 2 (-4) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 5 (-3)

Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

Abilities

Burrowing Tunneler. The T'l'k'n can burrow through sand, dirt, and light stone.

Keen Tremorsense. The T'l'k'n can pinpoint the location of creatures within 60 feet that are moving on the ground. Actions

Multiattack. The T'l'k'n makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its hooked tail.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.

Hooked Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage. On a hit, the target is grappled (escape DC 14).

Impregnate (Recharge 5-6). The T'l'k'n attempts to lay its eggs in a creature grappled by its hooked tail. The target must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature is impregnated. One day later, a swarm of T'l'k'n larvae bursts from the creature's body, and the creature dies.

The Vile Belgoi 💀

These are not your typical humanoids. The Belgoi are a truly foul monster of Athas with long, chitinous claws, webbed feet, and a puckered, toothless mouth adapted for feasting. They are vicious raiders who form small scouting parties to stalk the wastes for prey. Using a tiny, crystalline bell, they will attempt to lure a single target away from their group with a magical compulsion. Once a victim is isolated, the Belgoi will close in to drain their health with a necrotic touch, and only when the victim is incapacitated will they begin to feast. Their most terrifying trait is their resilience; if a Belgoi is killed, its remaining allies will flee to gather reinforcements, returning later with an even larger force to finish the job.

Belgoi

Medium humanoid, chaotic evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)

Hit Points 38 (7d8 + 7)

Speed 30 ft.

STR 14 (+2) DEX 16 (+3 ) CON 12 (+1)

INT 6 (-2) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 8 (-1)

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Challenge 2 (450 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

Abilities

Ambusher. The Belgoi has advantage on attack rolls against any creature it has surprised.

Return with the Host. When a Belgoi drops to 0 hit points, any other Belgoi within 60 feet immediately flee, returning with twice as many allies (up to a maximum of ten) within 1d4 hours. Actions

Multiattack. The Belgoi makes two claw attacks.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) poison damage.

Tempting Bell (Recharge 5-6). The Belgoi rings a tiny, crystalline bell. The Belgoi chooses one humanoid it can see within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or be lured by the sound. The target is charmed for 1 minute. While charmed, the creature must use its movement to move toward the Belgoi by the most direct route.

Draining Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one incapacitated creature. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) necrotic damage, and the Belgoi regains hit points equal to the damage dealt.

The World of Athas & The City of Tyr 🌍🌆

Athas is a dying world, a brutal land of scorching deserts and oppressive heat where water is more valuable than gold. 💧 The sun, a crimson orb, beats down on the cracked earth, and what little magic remains is fueled by the life force of the world itself, causing deserts to expand with every spell cast. This is the difference between a Preserver (who practices careful magic) and a Defiler (who rips the life from the land to power their spells). Psionics, the power of the mind, is a common force and is not tied to the world's life force.

Tyr is the most well-known city-state on Athas. It's a fortified settlement surrounded by the endless Sea of Silt, ruled by the ruthless sorcerer-king, Kalak. Tyr is a city of sharp contrasts: immense wealth and power for the few, and grinding poverty and slavery for the many. ⛓️

Key Locations in Tyr

The Arena: The heart of Tyr's entertainment. It's where slaves are forced to fight to the death for the amusement of the sorcerer-king. A champion can earn a fleeting moment of glory and perhaps even their freedom. 🏟️

The Sorcerer-King's Ziggurat: This immense, imposing structure dominates the city's skyline. It is the seat of Kalak's power and is heavily guarded by his elite templar guards and magical wards. 💎

The Slave Pits: Slaves are the foundation of Tyr's society, performing all the labor. The conditions are horrific, and the vast majority of Tyr's population are slaves. 😥

The Silt Sea Docks: Tyr sits at the edge of the great Sea of Silt. The docks are a hub for trade, smuggling, and dangerous expeditions into the choking dust sea. 🚢